This is the first complete transcript of what is still the best summary of what Nidal Hassan was really made of within hours of the Fort Hood shooting, but it was buried as part what can only be a very high level campaign by the FBI, Army, DOD, and president to ERASE the dots connecting all of the red flags. It is interesting why evidently there is no other published source of Hassan's reaction to the Little Rock attack on the recruiting station was almost certainly a precursor to Fort Hood, and tied to a shooter who had spent mysterious time in Yemen with a bogus passport to Somalia. Failure to even identify Hassan as a terrorism suspect, let alone put Anwar al-Awlaki on a FBI wanted list or identify Awlaki or Duane Reasoner as co-conspirators, or take military action to take out the terrorists behind this action in Yemen would lead to the Flight 253 bombing on Dec 25, even as evidently part of the government was trying to kill Hassan's spiritual guide, Anwar al-Awlaki in a airstrike in Yemen.

Transcribed by me in addition to the automatically generated transcript:

Shepard: We have now the opportunity to be joined by a man who knew and worked with Major Hasan, the suspect who was shot and killed today who said to be responsible for all of this. On the line this is Colonel Terry Lee who worked with him at Fort Hood in the psych ward with Major Hasan and is live and on the phone with us now. Sir, it is very good of you to join us. Thank you for your service and thank you for calling in.

Lee: Thank you for having me on. I get my condolences to the the men and women who went through this tragic day.

Shepard: Thank you colonel and I know that you were retired now and that you worked with him at the psych ward at Fort Hood. You, our bookers have quoted you as saying that he was making what you termed outlandish comments comments condemning our foreign policy and even once claimed that Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan could you elaborate for us."

Lee: Well, there was a time we were at a conference, this was roughly about six months ago [about may 2009], and he made some several comments about how, you know, first of all we shouldn't be over there and I told the major, that you need to lock it up major, this ain't the time for your views be known to the public individuals. There was several news people that were there at the conference. and he kept on saying...

Shepard: What did he say precisely?

1:21 Lee: He said precisely that, uh, maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor. And that.. at first we thought he was talking about how, you know -- Muslims should stand up and help the armed forces in Iraq, in Afghanistan. But apparently that wasn't the case because there was other times, he would make comments to other individuals. About how we shouldn't be in the war in the first place. 1:53 And there was a specific time when there was a shooting at Little Rock"

Shepard: At the recruitment center there, it is my belief...

Lee: Correct and there were some comments made about it it that he was almost sort of happy about it. And there was a couple other officers that were in the room and made the comment to him that well how can you make that, make that statement? And Nidal kept on making a comment, well maybe we should get out, and this is what Muslims should do, they should stand up to the aggressor.

Shepard: now it's my understanding from from previous conversations with you through through our Fox News employees. That some of the physicians in the unit were discussing the incident and expressed disgust and I'm quoting here "For the ragheads who might attack the military here in the United States. This was apparently said to major Hassan who, it's my understanding is a convert to Islam is that right."

Lee: Ah, that what I believe so .. but he made those comments and he stuck closely to his faith. But you know as soldiers you know we have a duty, to, you know follow orders from our commander in chief and your political views are set aside. But he was, after the shooting in Little Rock, he was almost outstandingly upset about, you know, the way this man was treated in Little Rock. And he says maybe we should have more of these where people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square. and that was from a third source, so I can't confirm that."

Shepard 3:40: Again we're we're on the line now with retired colonel Terry Lee. All right now now you now you say that Hassan himself, Who worked with the man on the right hand side of your screen at Fort Hood the man on the right hand side of your screen is the one who is said by the military to have shot and killed. Twelve people at Fort Hood in Texas today and left 31 others injured. You you have told our staff that that Hassan seemed to believe, had feelings about President Obama and his election could you tell us about that."

Lee: Well there was a comment that he made, a couple of times in the conference room and also one time outside of the facility, that he was hoping that President Obama would pull the troops out and things would settle down. And when things weren't going that way he became more more agitated more frustrated with with the conflicts over there and and he was, he just made his views well known. About how he felt about how, the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Shepard: And this is something that was investigated by the military it's my understanding."

Lee: Well that's what we were we're told. I'm retired I'm and I left there and I didn't hear anything more about it. I was told that there was investigation but. I couldn't tell you further any more than the what they say he said, she said routine

Shepard: But colonel you you've heard many of the statements that you've just reiterated to us and I wonder. Colonel, were you concerned about this man and the safety of others."

Lee: You know at first you know you blow it off for peoeple just being a hothead, and making political views. But, like over a period of time he became more, I would say agitated about everything. With the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and he's his views, a couple of times when he was in a mobilization line, there was a confrontation with another soldier, I just heard you know bits and pieces about it that he got into an argument and the name calling, apparently there was some name to that trooper which, I can't recall what was said, there was some agitation. Here's the thing of concern. . Why was being transferred from Walter Reed hospital to Fort Hood. I mean, something was happening there at Walter Reed. And that's that's what I hope the investigation will go and find out what happened at Walter Reed.. transported to Fort Hood."

Shepard: Good, well that those are all questions that we will certainly be asking [or NOT asking] in the days ahead and I'm sure the military's seeking [to cover up the] answer to that sort of question as well. Colonel. there are two others who were being held today in question.Major Hasan, did he have a group of friends who had similar beliefs as he, to your knowledge, your direct knowledge? [yes Duane Reasoner, also a jihadist, and a mysterious 3rd person, not counting his spritual pen-Imam, but neither known to Col Lee]

Lee: No, he was sort of a loner to himself. He never did socialize a lot with a lot of the officers, on duty or off duty much. he was a sort of a loner to himself.

Shepard: You've said it that other members of the military, including officers would call him derogatory names, could you go through some of that and explain how some of those arguments would go down?

Lee: if any soldier gets into an argument, there is going to be some name calling, but apparently he made some comments about. We should be pulling out of Iraq, we shouldn't be having any business there and and you've got some Officers, sons and daughters who are over there and feel strongly about it they got into some name calling. You know one thing led to another, but I don't think that would cause him to go on a shooting spree. I think there is a deeper seed than that.

Shepard: I was certainly not making that connection I was just trying to get to the bottom of what you heard and saw."

Lee: Yeah, you hear a lot especially in situations like this. You know I feel confident in the CID and FBI in investigating this and I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of this [Well, FBI and Army completely ignored everything said here and concluded there no motive in his anti-Army pro-muslim or condonging of terrorist acts and that he acted alone....]

Shepard: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of the state of Texas says that the army major was who's accused here was about to deployed overseas to either Iraq or Afghanistan I'm assuming. His entire group was do you know anything about yet."

Lee: He was going to it be deployed some time at the end of the year. He was totally against going, as a matter of fact he was going through the chain of command trying to get that deployment canceled. And he was at best strongly against about going back over there."

Shepard: Officials in Washington said they suspected that this shooter they they said the shooter was a psychiatrist. Is that accurate?

Lee: That's correct

Shepard: Would he work, I know that a lot of psychiatrists work with the men and women who come back from overseas and feel like they need somebody to talk to, would that have been the kind of work that he did."

Lee: That's correct, and not only that but the PTSD and other forms of maybe some type of alcoholism and maybe drug addiction and things of that nature."

Outcomes Based Education a disaster in South Africa, schools are worse than under apartheid

Found this on another group, South Africans are so unhappy about outcomes based education (ed reform) that it has become worse since the end of apartheid. Another case of people who claim to save the disadvantaged only making it worse for the very group they used as poster children to come into power.

READ Educational Trust is a South African-based NGO that operates in the education and literacy sectors broadly, and in educator training and school resource provision specifically. Established in 1979 and funded by foreign donors and the private sector, READ works alongside the Department of Education to implement teacher training and literacy projects in schools.

Khehla Shubane vs RW Johnson

BillThe government’s performance in education, especially as it relates to African children, is no different from that of past successive white governments. It is a disgrace that a generation of African children whose schooling started after the demise of apartheid has no better educational achievements to show than individuals educated under apartheid.

After a litany of excuses lasting well over a decade, the government must now admit it does not have a plan to improve education. The bulk of improvements in educating African children have come from former white schools — where, tellingly, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) is weak. The conclusion is inescapable that Sadtu is a significant part of the problem. The only visible contribution it has made is the chaos into which the education enterprise has been plunged in areas where it strong. Sadtu is at its best when it leads teachers out on strike rather than teaching; the skills of the group lie in demanding undeserved higher pay for which nothing is given in return. The first order of business should be to close down Sadtu, and summarily dismiss all teachers from the schools where no one passed. Institutions which effectively serve to condemn learners to the margins of society should have no right to exist. Schools with a record of consistent good performance must receive increased financial support. Good retired teachers willing to return to work should be hired.

Khehla On the contrary, the record of the African National Congress (ANC) government is clearly worse than previous Nat governments — this is surely why many black spokespersons have publicly said that the old Bantu Education schools were better. First, as soon as it came to power the ANC got rid of many of the best and most experienced teachers — something the Nats hadn’t done. Second, outcomes-based education was forced on the schools by an ANC minister despite clear warnings of impending disaster from all sides. It was not only a hugely expensive disaster but now we will spend more years recovering from it, waiting for the new textbooks required and so on. Third, it was the ANC that ended corporal punishment in schools without replacing it with any other means for maintaining discipline. Finally, the malign power of Sadtu is largely a product of ANC rule. The Nats would never have allowed it to become so important, nor would they have been so scared of it.This is not to say Nat rule was good. It wasn’t. Nor can we close down Sadtu. The constitution rightly recognises union rights. Ugly though it would be, what we need is for an education minister to do to Sadtu what the UK’s Margaret Thatcher did to the miners — take them on full-face and beat them thoroughly, with public opinion on his side. But I doubt whether any ANC minister will ever do that. Personally, I expect the slide in SA’s educational standards to continue unhindered as long as the ANC stays in office.

BillOf course the ANC is complicit in the blight in education. Outcomes-based education has taken the country back decades and yet no one in the ANC seems to recognise it as the catastrophe it is. The evidence is compelling that in schools in which Sadtu has an organisational presence, the collapse in teaching and learning has been precipitous, yet the ANC will not even raise a whimper in protest against actions by what is viewed as a sister organisation.There is no corporal punishment at Jeppe Girls, a government former white school, but the system works like clockwork and the school is the envy of parents desperate to give their children a decent education, who stop at nothing to have their children admitted there. Sending a child to Morris Isaacson High School, once the pride of the community in its achievements, is equivalent to playing a game of chance in which the odds are heavily stacked against you. The ANC has done nothing to correct this. It is upsetting that the ANC has hardly lifted a finger to stop the slide of schools whose history of educating Africans is second to none. Healdtown, Inkamana, Orlando High stand as sad monuments of callous indifference.

Khehla Yes, I suppose one could amend the Freedom Charter to read that the Doors of Learning and Education shall be thrown open, vandalised and torn off, and then much the same treatment will be doled out to the rest of the edifice. Perhaps the situation is clearest in higher education, where the slide in standards since 1994 is patent. The saddest case is that of the University of KwaZulu-Natal — once third in research behind the University of Cape Town and Wits University and now being reduced to the level of a tribal college.Essentially, SA is being reduced to a less and less educated society with fewer and fewer skills, doomed to fall back further and further behind other countries. ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is, in that sense, the face of the future, leading us backwards towards semiliteracy. I can’t see any end to this process while the ANC remains in power. Indeed, it’s clear ministers like Blade Nzimande would like to accelerate the process by increasing the flow of ineducable students being poured into the universities, lowering standards even further. It is, by the way, now commonplace for ANC and labour federation Cosatu publications to be a feast of grammatical, spelling and syntactical errors. And no one minds. One can see illiteracy gaining ground and gaining acceptance all the time.

BillPupils at dysfunctional schools should realise they bear the responsibility to make a success of learning. They should rise above the odds and use resources which are now numerous in their communities to get an education.African pupils from earlier periods did reasonably well despite a government that was determined to see them fail, and limited resources. There are many more graduates and learning aids in many townships now; they can be used at little cost to improve success rates. Nothing prevents pupils banding together to obtain the assistance of experienced retired mathematics teachers for lessons. Many in poorly served communities appear to think they do not need to work hard and be smart; after all, scrounging — especially in the African community — has been elevated to acceptable behaviour. This must be opposed vigorously in favour of hard work, which should continue to provide the only avenue for upward social mobility.

Khehla What’s missing from the discussion is the abysmal state of the black family, which has a huge knock-on effect on children’s behaviour, attitudes and attainment. The most recent figures I’ve seen suggest that barely a third of black children are growing up in two-parent families and that the rate of family disintegration has notably increased since the end of apartheid. This is a very striking fact, given that the argument always used to be that apartheid was responsible for the break-up of the black family. In fact this process seems to have a life and momentum all its own. An enormous number of black kids grow up in highly dysfunctional families or in single-parent homes where the father makes no contribution. This is true of less than one-fifth of Indian children in SA and is one of the biggest reasons for the huge gap in educational achievement between the two groups.This is a huge fact of our national and social life, which the government is not keen to recognise. But it won’t go away. It ought to be the cornerstone of social, housing, welfare and health policy as well as education. The ANC behaves as if women’s rights are about having women millionaires and MPs, but the great silent legion of single mums is what we should be concerned with.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Its top speed of 170 knots (196 mph, 315 km/h) was faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s and even new helicopters such as Apache and Blackhawk. Its high altitude perfomance is better than the Blackhawk over Afghanistan.

It is one of the few aircraft of the 1950s/60s such as the C-130 and the Bell Huey family that is still in production and front line service with over 1,179 built so far

It's not as big as the Russian Mil Mi-26, which has been contracted by the US to recover crashed CH-47s in Afghanistan. but it's the largest lifter in the US Army.

Jet-engine derived turboshaft engines were the key to performance advantages over previous piston powered helicopters. The first models had twin 2,200 horsepower engines. The versions just ordered by Canada will have two 4,733 horsepower Honeywell engines

The counter-rotating rotors eliminate the need for an anti-torque vertical rotor, allowing all power to be used for lift and thrust. The ability to adjust lift in either rotor makes it less sensitive to changes in the center of gravity, important for the cargo lifting role. If one engine fails, the other can drive both rotors.[7], but the cross shafting transmission adds expense and complexity compared to a small tail rotor.

Friday, January 22, 2010

New York times
In a letter to the judge presiding over his case, the accused killer, Abdulhakim Muhammad, calls himself a soldier in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and calls the shooting “a Jihadi Attack” in retribution for the killing of Muslims by American troops.
“I wasn’t insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this Act,” Mr. Muhammad said in a two-page, hand-printed note in pencil. The attack, which he said did not go as planned, was “justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion. Jihad — to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.”
[Hassan reportedly condoned the Little Rock attack to his colleages in Maryland. Yet the FBI, Army and Obama still insist there were no terror links at Fort Hood, and are investigating the people who raised the red flags, not the people who kept Hassan in the Army in the name of diversity]

Tuesday's earthquake brought down the roof of the enormous pink-and-cream church, filling the apse and nave with tons of rubble. The quake punched out its vivid stained-glass windows, twisted its wrought-iron fencing and sliced brick walls like cake. The western steeple, which had soared more than 100 feet, toppled onto parishioners praying at an outdoor shrine to St. Emmanuel. Flies buzzed around the pile of copper, plaster and felled columns.

The senior Catholic figure in the country, Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, was killed in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake. As many as 100 priests were still missing, sacristan Jean Claude Augustin said.

Grey swept wing planes are C-17 globemaster, gray straight wing is C-130, high tail russian plane is IL-76 similar to C-17 or C-141. A C-17 is turning off to the ramp. The ramp is full with just 7 or 8 airplanes.

This is the damaged port. They had only one container crane in the entire country, that's the green one in the lower left corner, now in the water. The entire causeway is in the water. The smaller wheeled blue crane is also in the water. Theroadway at lower left has sunken into the water, and containers are toppled all over the place where they are stacked. The right half of the other causeway has sunk. This is also on google earth.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

"The Government fears that too many citizens might be making a link between the plight of Avatar’s Na’vi people as they are thrown off their land and the numerous, often brutal, evictions endured closer to home by residents who get in the way of property developers. "

To advance the frontiers of knowledge and innovation, to take on the world's great challenges, and to educate our remarkable students, MIT must attract and cultivate the finest talent. The history of the Institute and of the United States shows that brilliant minds can emerge from anywhere; we must ensure that for those women and men who have the ability and ambition to succeed at MIT, MIT is a place where they can thrive.

Today, Provost Reif and I share with you the report from the Initiative on Faculty Race and Diversity. It describes MIT's progress on diversity, but it finds that progress to be uneven. Through the search and tenure processes and in their daily lives on campus, the experience of many of our faculty members from underrepresented minority groups is different from that of their majority peers. The report makes clear that to achieve a true culture of inclusion, we still have much work to do.

This work continues to grow in importance. A richly diverse America does not await us, it is upon us; it is our present and our future. We draw most of our faculty, students and staff from America, and we must make full use of the talent this country has to offer if we hope to continue to invent the future. We share this challenge with our peer institutions; only by working together with them can we effectively increase the pipeline of academic talent, the central resource in meeting our diversity and inclusion goals.

Creating a culture of inclusion is not an optional exercise; it is the indispensable precondition that enables us to capitalize on our diverse skills, perspectives and experiences, so that we can better advance the fundamental research and education mission of MIT. To maintain the Institute's unrelenting standards of excellence, all members of our community must contribute at the apex of their abilities. A productively diverse community at MIT will make us better at what we do: broader and deeper as thinkers; more effective as collaborators; more creative as teachers; and more understanding as colleagues and friends.

The report outlines practical, systemic reforms, such as broadening search practices and providing new faculty with much better mentorship, but it also highlights the overarching need to foster a culture of inclusion. Ultimately, a community reaps the benefits of diversity only when it looks beyond the numbers alone and actively creates a culture where everyone feels valued and included--an environment in which everyone can do their very best work.

MIT will use this important report to strengthen our practices and to develop and implement innovative strategies so that we can achieve the kind of leadership on diversity and inclusion that we expect from ourselves in every other realm.

Sincerely,

Susan Hockfield

From me:

I'm sorry but I need a barf bag for this study. So I was ripped off in my 1970s education because all my professors were white men with not enough women? Did my parents come all the way from China to send me to MIT so I can send my son to a place known foremost for "celebrating diversity" like every other silly college in this nation of PC? I am thankful I did NOT graduate from MIT into the 1980s brainwashed into the cult of diversity like those I knew who graduated from Stanford. The study does not examine representation of Asians in the facutly, nor does it compare faculty to the pool of people with PhDs who are qualified to teach at MIT. This is institutionalized racism in the name of political correctness. Expect to see a letter to the Tech expressing my disgust at this initiative.

Arthur Hu class of 1980, Asian American and mad as heck.

And from the alumni office:

Dear Arthur,

Thank you for responding to President Hockfield’s announcement about the diversity report. We understand you are concerned about MIT’s vitality and leadership in science and engineering. We are convinced that building a more diverse community will help assure MIT’s excellence in the future.

A diverse intellectual community promotes deeper thinking, more effective collaboration, more creative research, and it upholds MIT’s tradition of meritocracy.

We hope you will take the time to read the report which outlines MIT’s actions to strengthen the quality of students and faculty and points to our challenges.

I received this product from amazon.com and the title said "Nokia BH-216 Bluetooth Headset with Display (Gray)", but when I received the product, there was NO DISPLAY on the headset.

I am not sure if Amazon sent me the wrong piece or if this is an error in the description, I tried looking around for the model images and didnt find any with display. I will upload the pic of the one i received.

Other than that, the headset itself is good, it fits snugly, the call quality is good, the controls are easy to operate, and overall a sleek looking piece. It also comes with 3 different size ear plugs to suit the best for you. Since display was not the reason i bought this, i think i am gonna keep it and since it was FAR, i have nothing to complain ;)

I've had plenty of trouble in the past with various bluetooth headsets not fitting very well or snugly on my ear, and having the tendency to fall off (either due to the bulkiness of the body or the flimsy design of the earhook). This particular headset fits very well and securely on my ear, partly due to its lightness, and partly to its silicone earpad-ring design, which comes in three different sizes--once I chose the specific-sized earpad (or earloop) that best fit my outer ear, I've found the headset to be quite comfortable and to fit very well; unlike with the previous couple bluetooths I've owned, I can now turn my head quickly or lean my head without feeling like the whole thing will fall off. You can definitely put this on and forget it's there after a while because of its lightness and snug fit.

Sound quality-wise, I find the microphone voice quality is decent. I recorded my voice and played it back and compared the sound quality of various bluetooths, and the Nokia sounds good, although perhaps soft/muffled in terms of the high-end, treble portion of the sonic range. Compared to my Motorola H3 for example, the Nokia is a little too muffled in terms of treble response from what I can tell, although the bass response is definitely better and more abundant. It may come down to a matter of taste, and it may just be a difference of sound signature, but I personally prefer something with more prominent high-end/treble, as it makes the voice sound clearer and more understandable.

There is a built-in DSP voice-isolating and background noise-reducing function/filter, and it works to reduce background noise to some degree to allow your voice to come through clearer to the person whom you're talking to, but probably not as well as a true noise-reducing headset with dual-microphone technology.

I've bought at least a dozen bluetooth headsets over the past few years. Without a doubt, this one has the best fit I've ever experienced. The soft silicone piece fits snugly in my ear without causing any pain, which is great because I have super sensitive ears. The simple but effective ear loop can easily be removed and swapped around to make it a left or right ear piece. It can also be adjusted up or down depending upon the size of your ear. Unlike so many bluetooth headsets that have a fixed length ear loop and are therefore too large for my ear, this one was a perfect match.

The headsets feels very cheaply made, thus a deduction of one star. The call answer and end button just doesn't work as smoothly as I'd like. This bluetooth headset is extremely small and lightweight, but I found the call quality to be as good as the Motorola headsets, but not as good as the Plantronics. For casual users or users on a budget, this is a great choice.

One last comment, I have no idea why the description says display. It doesn't have a display, none of my bluetooth headsets have a display, and I wasn't expecting a display. However, I can understand the confusion if you bought this and can't find the display.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

my reply to this piece on the V-22 as machine with a bad rap that we should buy, and the f-18 as a fighter that is a waste of money (sure is overkill for dropping bombs on insurgents with AK-47s and RPG and IEDs) My college essay was that we needed both the F-14 and F-18, and that it was a terrible mistake to grow the Hornet into a Tomcat replacement. I think the V-22 will go into history with the C-130, Huey, and Phantom as one of the 10 greatest flying machines ever made once they get the bugs out. If it's a success, they'll be buying thousands until the end of time like the C-130.

The Cobra actually predated the F-14 as it was an evolution of the F-5 with a high wing and twin tails. Same forward fuselage and wing shape. The F-5 was the result of building a fighter around afterburnning versions of the engine in the tiny Quail cruise missle/decoy.

You forgot that Cheney headed the "Hornet mafia" and ordered the F-14s AND tooling to be scrapped. And the debacle of scaling up the original lightweight YF-17 to the Phantom sized F/A-18A/C then scaled up yet again (with the deceptively same designation) and almost completely redesigned F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Sure it's got more range than a regular hornet, but nearly the size and more expensive than a re-tooled F-14 which is much faster has much longer range, and carries more than the aerodynamic mess that is a superbug with all the pylons loaded out.

What started as a lightweight fighter is now heavier than the weight that torpedoed the original F-111B (remember that disaster? The airplane that was spec'd to do everything EXCEPT dogfight once the Navy realized the big birds would be useless in MiG-cap against old Korean war tech MiG-17's) McNamara's "commonality" was killed by the Phantom being the fighter that did everything for everybody, and the model for every US fighter since then.

You should also note the Americanism that they will NEVER accept a lightweight fighter like the F-104 or F-5. The JSF has grown in weight so that it is BIGGER than the original monster F-105 that got jumped by MiG-17s that made the USAF swear they'd never try to dogfight in a plane that big again, and the Navy version is as heavy as the original Tomcat.

If we're to get Awlaki in Yemen, we'll have to do it with V-22s and AC-130 gunships, but it won't happen as long as Obama "Hasan never talked to any terrorist" is in office.